CAR PARK usage in six car parks has decreased following the introduction of parking charges last year, a report has found.

In July 2015, Pembrokeshire County Council introduced charging mechanisms into six car parks that previously did not charge.

Car parking charges were introduced in High Street (St Dogmaels), Station Hill (Goodwick), St Thomas Green (Haverfordwest), Rifleman’s Field (Haverfordwest), Mart Ground (Crymych) and Station Road (Pembroke).

A review was carried out to look at the impact of the charges and that found that the usage of the car parks had decreased due to the new charges.

Only St Dogmaels experienced a rise in its usage in the past year.

It was also stated in the report that usage of the Rifelman’s Field car park had dropped considerably.

On Monday, September 12, Cabinet members were presented with the findings but they did not mention the drop in usage at five of the six car parks.

Cabinet member for Transportation, Cllr Rob Lewis said: “Cabinet carried out a review of non-charging car parks and introduced a charging structure on some of the parks in this authority. This took place due to a scrutiny report which happened on June 4.

“We introduced charging into six sites in Pembrokeshire back in July last year and we added that we have a report back 12 months later to monitor the impact the charges have had.

“Some of the findings are similar throughout all of them but I will highlight a few things that have been picked up.

“We’ve introduced pop and shop bays in quite a number of Car parks and these have proved quite successful and some of the businesses have recognised that they are being used for the right purposes.

“In St Dogmaels, we are currently undertaking further discussions on the impact of the RNLI, obviously we don’t want to impact on their very important work so we want to look further at what we can do to support the RNLI in St Dogmaels.

“In Crymych, we’re looking at taking on further discussions as the community council have come forward with a proposal on how we could manage the car park in the future so we will have further discussions to look at the options and they are quite keen.”

Cllr Huw George said: “I don’t think people fully realise the challenges we are under and I’m looking at the charges, for example 4 hours is 60p, that compares well with other authorities because if you go to other authorities you’re talking £2 for the same sort of time and I hope the people of Pembrokeshire will come forward and say how can we help in keeping a service.”

Cllr Jamie Adams said it was pleasing that the council had recognised that the council has realised that there are some areas where charging is not appropriate.

As part of a number of recommendations Charges and Tariffs in Station Hill, Goodwick, will remain unchanged.

At St Thomas Green in Haverfordwest there is no proposal to change any of the tariffs or charge structure.

There will also be no change in Station Road in Pembroke despite all three seeing reduced usage.

Only Rifleman’s Field in Haverfordwest will see a change in its 24 hour tariff to 0.80p in order to encourage workers to park and reduce some on street issues.

The 4 hour tariff will also be removed in the hope that people wishing to park for 4 hours can use the St Thomas Green car park.